Abandoned Towns
A flat-roofed, two-story concrete double house at Concrete City in 1914, with two people standing by a doorway

Coal mining town

Concrete City

A model village of poured-concrete double houses that a railroad built for its miners in 1911. It was empty by 1924, and the buildings proved too solid to blow up. A 2019 visitor found the ruins on city land with no No Trespassing signs; no owner has said whether visitors are allowed.

41°11′21″N 75°58′34″W · ≈650 ft

Photo: Anneman (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Ruins · 2019 visit

The newest first-hand visit we could read is from Uncovering PA, published in November 2019 and updated in December 2020. Its author saw no "No Trespassing" signs and reported that, per Luzerne County tax records, the site is "located on land owned by the City of Nanticoke." He called the ruins "inherently unsafe." No owner or agency has said whether visitors are allowed, so obey any signs.

Overview

Houses too strong to tear down

In 1911 the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad built a small village of double houses just outside Nanticoke for employees of its Truesdale Colliery. The houses were poured in concrete with reusable steel molds, around a central park, and they were early American examples of what came to be called the International Style. Each had seven rooms and rented for $8 a month. Only about forty of the colliery's workers could live here.

The concrete that made them cheap to build made them hard to live in. Uncovering PA describes them as wet and drafty, and the concrete made a sewer system almost impossible to add. The Glen Alden Coal Company took over in 1921 and abandoned the village in 1924. When someone later tried to demolish a house, 100 sticks of dynamite barely dented it.

The shells still stand in the woods north of Front Street. The state put up a historical marker in 1998. Firefighters and police have trained here, and Wikipedia says paintball and airsoft players use the buildings too. Sources disagree on the count: Wikipedia says 22 duplexes, the marker's history and Uncovering PA say 20.

Timeline

Thirteen years of tenants

Houses going up on the hillside, November 11, 1912
Houses going up on the hillside, November 11, 1912 · Photo: Bunnell, Watson B. (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
House No. 8, a 1914 prize winner, photographed by the railroad on August 12, 1914
House No. 8, a 1914 prize winner, photographed by the railroad on August 12, 1914 · Photo: Anneman (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's coal division builds poured-concrete double houses around a central park for workers at its Truesdale Colliery. Steel molds let crews finish a two-family house in a day.
  2. The state historical marker gives this as the year the homes opened.
  3. About forty employees and their families live here. Each house has seven rooms and rents for $8 a month.
  4. A railroad photographer records house No. 8, occupied by John P. Evans, as the winner of the 1914 first prize.
  5. The Glen Alden Coal Company takes control of the property.
  6. Glen Alden abandons the village rather than pay for required improvements. Uncovering PA adds that the concrete made a needed sewer system almost impossible to install.
  7. A demolition attempt fails when 100 sticks of dynamite barely damage one building. Firefighters and police later use the site for training.
  8. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicates a state historical marker on Front Street.

Site map

Where the houses stand

The rectangle of double houses around the open courtyard, May 14, 1913
The rectangle of double houses around the open courtyard, May 14, 1913 · Photo: Bunnell, Watson B. (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Uncovering PA's 2019 visit found the houses still laid out in a rectangle around the old courtyard, "remarkably intact ruins" covered in graffiti inside and out. One had a large hole between its two halves, and another had lost a back corner. The author entered about a third of them and stayed out of the upper floors and basements.

Today's USGS topo marks the rectangle with faint dotted outlines between Hanover and Lower Askam. The 1891 sheet in the historic maps below shows the empty hillside two decades before the houses, and a purple revision on the 1947 sheet outlines the rectangle of buildings east of Hanover.

  • Concrete double houses, 20 to 22
  • Central courtyard
  • Front Street historical marker (1998)
USGS topographic map of the Hanover section of Nanticoke with the faint outline of Concrete City in the center
USGS The National Map, topo. Concrete City's dotted outlines sit in the center, north of Front Street and east of Hanover.
Aerial view: clearings and old paths in the woods east of the Hanover street grid
Aerial imagery, same area. At this scale the site shows only as clearings and old paths in the woods at center, east of the Hanover grid.

Historic maps

Concrete City on USGS maps, 1891–1947

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Concrete City, 1891
Wilkes-Barre sheet, 1891, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Nanticoke is next door, about 10 minutes away. From Philadelphia the route runs up the Northeast Extension to Wilkes-Barre. Both routes end on an unnamed track to the townsite, which we haven't checked. Uncovering PA advised parking on Front Street and walking the rutted dirt road north, about a third of a mile. We haven't confirmed that visitors are allowed.

USGS topographic map between Nanticoke and Concrete City with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Nanticoke2.3 miabout 10 min
  1. From South Market Street, turn right on East Main Street.0.6 mi
  2. Turn right on Kosciuszko Street, then continue onto Middle Road at the roundabout.1.3 mi
  3. Turn right onto an unnamed track to the townsite.0.4 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • We haven't driven the last 0.4 mile. Uncovering PA (2019) described the road up from Front Street as rutted and advised against driving it.
  • The state historical marker stands on Front Street in the Hanover section of Nanticoke, about a quarter mile south of the houses.
  • The buildings are crumbling and full of debris. Uncovering PA called the site "inherently unsafe."

Photos

Concrete City in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Concrete City?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Concrete City

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Pennsylvania index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Concrete City", retrieved October 2026: founding and abandonment dates, 22 duplexes, courtyard, Glen Alden, 1998 designation, current uses, coordinates.
  2. ExplorePAHistory, "Concrete City Historical Marker": marker text (opened 1913, forty employees, twenty double houses, Glen Alden after 1921, 1/4 mile north of the marker) and 1998 dedication, Truesdale Colliery, 1911 construction, rent and rooms, steel molds, the dynamite attempt, fire training.
  3. Uncovering PA, "Exploring the Ruins of Concrete City", Jim Cheney, November 28, 2019, updated December 13, 2020: ownership per county tax records, signs, parking on Front Street and the walk in, condition of the houses, why the village failed.
  4. Wikimedia Commons: the 1914 railroad photo and its caption, "First Prize 1914, House #8, Concrete City, occupied by John P. Evans."
  5. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

  • The finished village around its courtyard, May 1913: Bunnell, Watson B. (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • House No. 8, first prize in 1914: Anneman (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Construction under way, November 1912: Bunnell, Watson B. (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Children on the playground slide and swings, August 1915: Anneman (Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
  • Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Wilkes-Barre 1891, 1:62,500; Wilkes-Barre West 1947, 1:24,000.
Record5 of 9
  • Coordinates
  • Builder and dates
  • Historical marker (1998)
  • Site on USGS topo
  • 1914 photo
  • Current owner
  • Access rules
  • Field report since 2019
  • Photos of the ruins
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.